Focus on Arabs and Islam

Focus on Arabs and Islam

Palestine Information Office Closure Appealed

A State Department order closing the Palestine Liberation Organization's information office in Washington, DC, was upheld in a US District Court December 2. The action was initiated in October by the State Department, which first declared the Palestine Information Office (PIO) a foreign mission (a status it had denied the office at the time the PLO opened its observer mission at the United Nations in New York 13 years ago) and then ordered the Washington office closed in 30 days. The department granted it an extension for an additional 30 days and then the PIO staff, all of whom are US citizens or resident aliens in accordance with US terms laid down as a condition of opening the office, were barred from the premises and the telephone lines were disconnected.

The PIO staff, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, is appealing the District Court decision on constitutional grounds. A new appeal will be filed by December 29, accompanied by amicus curiae briefs protesting the closure being submitted by prominent Americans including former US government officials, Arab-American leaders, Jewish peace activists, and other concerned Americans. Those wishing to associate themselves with such briefs are invited to telephone Ms. Malea Kiblan at [phone], or Albert Mokheiber, ADC legal affairs director, at [phone]. PIO volunteers have also established a temporary Washington, DC, information number at [phone].

The action resulted from an ill-starred "deal" between Assistant Secretary of State John Whitehead, a Reagan administration political appointee, and representatives of 25 national Jewish organizations. The deal, opposed by some career officers within the State Department, was supposed to result in withdrawal of Israel lobby pressure on both houses of Congress for legislation to close the PIO's parent body, the PLO Observer Mission at United Nations headquarters in New York. That legislation would, in effect, call upon the United States to repudiate solemn treaty obligations assumed in 1947 when the United Nations chose the United States as its headquarters. Ironically, the legislation was nevertheless enacted by Congress, and attached as a rider to the State Department appropriations bill.

United Nations lawyers say the congressional move is in breach of Sections 11 and 13...